The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-04-30
TEMPERANCE READING.
A CURSED THING.
Why the Temperance RefOrmer Becomes
a Fanatic" a "Bore" and ''an Orense
Against Good Taste"

! "a "Fanatic," "Bore" and ''an Offense
Against Good Taste"
"Strike it hard and often, sir! You
gentlemen who use the pen ought to be
striking on rum all the while. For it
is the curse of all curses"
The speaker was man whom /
greatly respected, and for whose
friendship, now a thing of memory, l
thsak God. l remember that / prom
Used that man to assail the curse of
strong drink at all proper times and
seasons, as long as l welded pen. A
VOW to the dead should be sacred
thing. How it grew upon this man,
his hatred for the traffic in intoxicat-
ing liquors. 1t is singular that all
Temperance workers tend to become
rabid. They grow in zeal for their
cause as no other sectaries do, becom-
ing hot, hotter, hottest. Your real
Temperance reformer, who once gives
himself to the idea, becomes ''fanat-
ic." Did you ever think whyP He
would rather child of his would die
than marry tippler He breaks
friendship with you, if you are even
moderate drinker. He dissolves a
partnership to get rid of an associate
who has begun to drink; and he moves
heaven and earth to eject an agent, or
a manager, or even fellow-director in
any corporation in which he has inter-
est How he raves! He leaves his old
grocer because the man sells drinks on
the sly; and the Temperance reformer,
once in full tilt, will walk five blocks
to avoid trading with a druggist who
has begun to do better business with
"dashed" soda water than with qui-
nine. How mad he is! He foams
against the churches and the ministers,
because, as he thinks, they are not suf-
ficiently active in the good cause of
anti-rum. He becomes "unreasona-
ble," "bore," an "offense against
good taste" and very many polite peo-
pie "can not bear him at all" as he is
everlastingly inveighing against the
curse of curses. Did you ever wonder
whyP
This is why. Because no one knows
the hell that rum is making On this
earth till he stops and looks into it.
The most of us confess that the inor-
dinate use of strong drink is a great
evil; but we are too busy to think of
it further, and we pass on. But let q
man or woman once become known as
interested, and such q swarm of skele-
ton arms reach up their skinny fingers
clutching for help! Such a sea of
wild eyes flash out of the midnight of
the horror beneath us, appealing for
help! Such a wall, such a chorus,
such a diapason of groans salute the
reformer, all because he is a reformer,
and new to the business. Help me!
Have mercy on me!'' Gentle reader
these are the voices and sights that
make men fanatics. You know moth
ing of them. They do not appeal to
you, for you have not the reputation
of being a reformer. The drunken
miserables hide from you. The
poisoned rats burrow out of sight
But he who has once turned an inquir-
ing and kindly face towards the vic
Tins of drink is besieged with crowd
ing horrors.
And is it not the curse of all curses?
Is there any i'll that flesh is subject to
which rum can not bring? Name a
disease which drink does not call at
command, as chief devil calls his
under-devils. Psychologists say there
is not one. Name calamity which
drink can not bring upon us. 1t can
cause us to forfeit our employment. 1t
can destroy our savings. 1t can break
. up the closest friendship. 1t can rob
us of the respect of all decent men. 1t
can drive us out of our native village,
out of our home, out of the world A
monopoly of miseries is rum; and the
lesser miseries never dare break the
combination. 1t is close corporation
of woes; and no good thing is ever adj
mtted to the hellish firm. 1t is an in
dustry of sorrows which never shuts
down to repair even q wheel, which
even drives its machinery faster on
Sundays and holidays and nights than
during proper working hours; which,
alas, in the hardest times is behind in
filing orders. Orders for pains and
shame; orders for beggars and Grimm
ais; orders for widows and orphans and
insane; orders from hell.
5 Every distillery should bear the sign:
"THE CURSE FACTORY" On its great
. carts about town should be written:
"QuarrelS breUed at short notice." On
! advertisements should be printed;
"Any and all kinds Of mischief .fitr-
( a,shed at the forrest price, and eoarrant-
ed to last a Htettme." These splendid
vehicles, drawn by the noblest horses
5 in the streets, grind little child to a
t mangled, blood mass of quivering pulp
at every corner. But yet they are per-
= mitted to run. They dismember a
! woman of all her happiness on every
block. Yet they are permitted to run
: because the quivering, palpitating
} victims are not seen. Yet some of us
see these things as they are.
) We read the proud name of the brew
er, and contrast the fine house in which
, he lives with the novels which his